American lawyer cites 'lack of leadership' at the top of Fifa in resignation
statement after leading investigation into 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid
process

Fifa's independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia has resigned after an “erroneous” version of his investigation into the World Cup bidding process was published.

Mr Garcia, a US lawyer, cited a "lack of leadership" at the top of Fifain a resignation statement, as he attacked the decision to cover up the findings of his inquiry. He also said he has lost confidence in the independence of his ethics committee colleague, German judge Joachim Eckert.

His resignation will pile pressure on Fifa and its controversial president, Sepp Blatter, who has already faced heavy criticism for not publishing the whole report. The Conservative MP Damian Collins said that Mr Garcia's resignation "removes any last shred of credibility" for the investigation into the bidding process.

Mr Garcia had spent months carrying out the inquiry into allegations of corruption surrounding the decision to allow Qatar and Russia to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

World football's governing body then published an edited version of his report, which cleared Qatar and Russia of wrongdoing. Mr Garcia said that version "contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations".

The former US Attorney quit a day after the Fifa appeals panel rejected his challenge of Mr Eckert's summary of the confidential 430-page investigation dossier.

In his resignation statement, Mr Garcia said he had felt that Fifa was making “real progress” after he was appointed in July 2012 to look at the votes into the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. He filed his report in September, but shortly after that Mr Eckert “indicated publicly that only limited information from the Report would be made public”.

At the time, Mr Garcia made a public statement because he was “concerned that insufficient transparency would not serve Fifa’s interests”. However, in his resignation statement, Mr Garcia noted that Fifa's only response to this was to report him to the disciplinary committee for making the public statement.

However, in November Mr Eckert issued a 42-page ‘Statement of the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of the Fifa ethics committee on the Report on the Inquiry into the 2018/2022 Fifa World Cup Bidding Process prepared by the investigatory chamber of the Fifa ethics committee” (the ‘Eckert Decision’). In a cover letter, Mr Eckert described the statement as his ‘findings, including certain descriptions of the contents of the investigatory chamber’s report’.

“The issues raised by Mr Eckert’s selection and omission of material from the report, and his additional comments, went far beyond the initial transparency concerns. As my public statement at the time explained, the Eckert Decision contained ‘numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of facts and conclusions’. Accordingly, I appealed.

“A brief I filed with the Fifa Appeal Committee on November 24, 2014, outlined the Eckert Decision’s most serious failings. Among other points, the brief explained why, when viewed in the context of the Report it purported to summarise, no principled approach could justify the Eckert Decision’s edits, omissions, and additions.

“Yesterday’s decision by the appeal committee declined to address these points. Instead, the appeal committee rejected my appeal on procedural grounds, concluding that ‘it is not necessary for the Fifa appeals committee to enter into considerations on the substance of the appeal’.

“The appeal committee found that the Eckert Decision was ‘merely a personal opinion on the report’ and had ‘no legally binding effect whatsoever’. It reached this conclusion even though, under article 36 of the code of ethics, only ‘final decisions’ may be made public, as the Eckert Decision, which was published on Fifa’s website, obviously was.

“The appeal committee also overlooked the Eckert Decision’s self-described ‘findings’, including one stating that ‘the evaluation of the 2018/2022 Fifa World Cups bidding process is closed for the Fifa ethics committee.” Fifa president Blatter recently reaffirmed that ‘finding’ during an interview published by Fifa, stating: ‘Furthermore, there is no change to Judge Eckert’s statement that the investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 Fifa World Cups is concluded.’

I disagree with the appeal committee’s decision.

“It now appears that, at least for the foreseeable future, the Eckert Decision will stand as the final word on the 2018/2022 Fifa World Cup bidding process. While the appeal committee’s decision notes that further appeal may be taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, I have concluded that such a course of action would not be practicable in this case.

“No independent governance committee, investigator, or arbitration panel can change the culture of an organisation. And while the November 13, 2014, Eckert Decision made me lose confidence in the independence of the adjudicatory chamber, it is the lack of leadership on these issues within Fifa that leads me to conclude that my role in this process is at an end.

“Accordingly, effective today, December 17, 2014, I am resigning as independent chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Fifa ethics committee.”

In the blistering statement, he added that “no principled approach could justify the Eckert Decision’s edits, omissions, and additions.”

This month, Mr Garcia appealed the decision to only release a truncated version of the findings, but this appeal was unsuccessful.

“And while the November 13, 2014, Eckert Decision made me lose confidence in the independence of the Adjudicatory Chamber, it is the lack of leadership on these issues within Fifa that leads me to conclude that my role in this process is at an end,” Mr Garcia said.

Officials from England’s 2018 bid team were among those who gave evidence to Mr Garcia and his deputy chairman Cornel Borbely.

The investigation looked into a number of allegations of corruption as well as incentives offered to Fifa executive members such as friendly internationals, development money, commercial opportunities and sponsorships. The hosting rights for the two tournaments were awarded simultaneously by Fifa’s executive committee in Zurich in 2010 after a deeply controversial campaign.

The bidding nations were: Russia, England, Holland/Belgium and Spain/Portugal for 2018, and Qatar, the United States, Australia, Japan and Korea for 2022. Russia and Qatar have started work on infrastructure projects for the respective tournaments in 2018 and 2022. Russia and Qatar have always denied any wrongdoing by their bid committees.